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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Technologies of mobility and the negotiation of belonging in Cameroon
| Panel |
73. New Social Spaces. Mobility and technology in Africa
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| Paper ID | 163 |
| Author(s) |
Bruijn, Mirjam de; Nyamnjoh, Francis ; Nkwi, Walter
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | This paper discusses the fascinating appropriation of and changing communication dynamics engineered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) among Cameroonians in a context of flexible mobility. This it does by discussing the experiences and discourses of Anglophone Cameroonians both in their home villages and as migrants in diasporic spaces within and abroad. Empirical substantiation is provided by interviews with and personal experiences of Anglophone Cameroonians at home and abroad collected through face-to-face and electronic interactions thanks to flexibility mobility. The paper examines the relationship between innovations in communication technologies and the negotiation of mobility and encounters with new social spaces. It argues that ICTs have shaped and been shaped in turn by the personal and collective agency of the individuals and cultural communities who have embraced or been embraced by them. In addition to the different translocal and transnational mobility possibilities offered Cameroonians by ICTS, the latter have also served to redefine relationships, community and belonging in ways both acceptable and contested. The paper thus provides evidence on how flexible mobility and advances in ICTs have transformed understanding of family, relationships, intimacy and ideas of home and belonging. Individuals and communities from Anglophone Cameroon are using ICTs to outgrow bounded ideas of home, and also to domesticate the opportunities that come with flexible mobility and new dimensions of being and belonging. With modern technologies such as the plane, radio, television, Internet and cellphone, local cultural values are being globalised as families and communities forage for opportunities in diasporic spaces through their sons and daughters as translocal and transnational migrants, while at the same time multiplying opportunities for accountability and, quite paradoxically, opportunism as well. Such accessibility, flexible mobility and flexible cultural discourses have also engendered flexible ideas of relationships of intimacy. Thanks to ICTs local cultural values are able to cross boundaries and stretch the borders of intimacy with opportunities and opportunism informed by consumerism, especially as experienced at the margins of belonging and success. With these possibilities, home appears less confined by borders, as bounded ideas of being and belonging are tinkered with constantly by desperate individuals in tune with the infinite possibilities of these technologies.
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